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    Practical Straw Bale Building
    Practical Straw Bale Building
    Practical Straw Bale Building
    Ebook163 pages2 hours

    Practical Straw Bale Building

    By Murray M. Hollis

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    About this ebook

    Building with straw bales is being embraced by amateurs and professionals for its versatility, comfort, environmental friendliness and high insulation. New methods should expand its growing worldwide popularity.

    In Practical Straw Bale Building, Murray Hollis uses simple, easy to understand language to describe the established techniques of straw bale construction and ways in which they can be improved. He also presents a new straw bale construction system that has substantial benefits over current methods. This system incorporates a new tensioning system that replaces the use of fence strainers for tensioning the hold-down/compression wires and eliminates uneven tensioning on opposite sides of the wall. It also allows for fabricating wall modules on-site as horizontal modules that are then swung into the vertical wall position after fabrication. Aspects of structures other than walls are addressed only to the extent that they are relevant to the use of straw bales, e.g. issues such as types of floors, roof structures and methods of heating or cooling.

    The innovative methods in this book will help to progress straw bale building technology and move it into the mainstream of the building industry.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLandlinks Press
    Release dateMar 29, 2005
    ISBN9780643099470
    Practical Straw Bale Building

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      Book preview

      Practical Straw Bale Building - Murray M. Hollis

      1

      Introduction

      Although straw has been used for building for millennia—usually combined with other materials such as clay and sand—it seems that it was not until the baling machine was invented in the late 1800s that builders recognised the potential to use blocks of straw as a building material. Notably this occurred in Nebraska, USA, where traditional building materials such as timber and stone were not readily available. Some of those buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s still exist.

      A smattering of straw bale buildings was constructed up to about the 1980s, but the 1980s/1990s marks a substantial revival in straw bale building in many parts of the world, including North America, Europe and Australia. Now, examples of straw bale buildings include simple domestic dwellings of rather rustic nature, very modern homes, creatively sculptured structures and commercial buildings, such as wineries. They can be found in both urban and rural environments and, more often than not, their design emphasises other environmentally friendly features such as solar passive heating and use of other environmentally friendly materials.

      Enthusiastic owner-builders are still building the large majority of straw bale buildings, although a small number of professional builders have adopted the material and are continuing to develop their methods. However, it would be surprising if many traditional builders, used to precision construction techniques, would embrace with enthusiasm a building material so unprecise and variable. Straw bales are awkward to handle; they are quite variable in length, shape, density, and surface finish—‘finish’ is hardly even an appropriate word in this context. Straw bales are also susceptible to water damage; they vary greatly in price and availability depending on the time of year, the weather in the growing season and the location; and they can create considerable mess and waste on the building site.

      Straw bale house under construction at Jerrabomberra (Queanbeyan, NSW)

      Without fundamental innovative changes building with straw bales will remain primarily in the alternative culture. To meet the challenge of making building with straw bales more attractive, or at least less abhorrent, to skilled building tradespeople, is one objective of this book. After an extensive discussion of the essential elements of current best practice in straw bale building—though many will debate what is best practice—the discussion ventures into innovate methods that should help to progress straw bale building technology—to move straw bale building further into the mainstream of the building industry.

      This book does not address comprehensively all aspects of building a structure that has straw bale walls. Aspects of structures other than walls are addressed only to the extent that they are relevant to the use of straw bales as a building material for the walls. Issues not unique to building with straw bales, such as the various types of floors (concrete, earth, timber, etc.), roof structures, methods of heating/cooling, and sustainable building issues, are discussed extensively elsewhere in conjunction with straw bale building, as well as in other contexts. These issues would tend to dilute the main thrust of this book. However, some techniques not familiar to the building trade are discussed in substantial detail.

      Some techniques are drawn from grain farmers, some from fence-builders, some from gardeners, some from the building trades, and some are new.

      There are many environmental issues associated with straw bales. However, these are not covered in this book unless they are of particular practical relevance to the building technique being discussed. For example, many people claim that straw is a waste material and therefore environmentally ideal for building purposes. There is, no doubt, substantial truth in that claim, but the issues are many, and seldom are they fully explored.

      There are many variations on the theme of straw bale building. Rather than attempt a comprehensive review, this book concentrates on techniques that are most likely to be accepted by the mainstream building industry. However, in numerous cases alternatives are mentioned, including techniques that have proven to be inappropriate or not very useful, but are still being applied.

      Straw bale building has been incorporated into building codes, particularly in some states of the USA, often including some less-than-ideal methods. However, the published knowledge of straw bale building, including the material in this book, is insufficient to construct comprehensive building codes. Further research and more experience is desirable before regulatory authorities adopt very prescriptive straw bale building codes, though it would be desirable now for authorities to develop guideline documents that can be used in conjunction with the requirement that buildings meet specified performance requirements.

      Straw bales: more environmentally friendly than bricks?

      Manufacture of clay bricks begins with mining clay and other raw materials. The clay and other ingredients are transported to brick-making facilities where they are mixed, possibly screened, and formed into damp bricks. These are dried and baked to high temperature. They are stockpiled, transported to retailers, and finally transported to building sites—earthy, but non-renewable, and energy hungry. Compare that with straw, which is sewn, grown, cut, baled in the field, often stockpiled on-farm, and transported to building sites, usually bypassing the retailer. The absence of expensive energy-consuming factory processing and retail overheads, and straw being a renewable and recyclable material, tend to make straw bales economically and environmentally attractive.

      2

      Basics of straw walls

      Straw bale walls may be built by placing small rectangular bales, essentially bricks, in a ‘running bond’ fashion. The bales are not so rigid and precisely rectangular as bricks, so an unsupported wall of straw bales tends to be quite unstable. In fact, a wall more than about two metres high and a few metres long becomes rather like a slab of jelly, so temporary restraints are essential during construction.

      However, when the stacked bales have been tied down to the foundations, thereby compressing the wall vertically, the wall is transformed from a mass of jelly to a stiff and resilient edifice. Usually straw walls are then plastered inside and out with three coats of lime-based, earthen or cement-based plaster.

      Fig. 1 A running bond structure.

      The finished product is usually about a half-metre thick, with excellent thermal insulation characteristics, very good resistance to fire, able to support very substantial roof loads, and able to cope with strong impact—a secure, comfortable, durable, ecologically friendly and practical basis for buildings for domestic, commercial and farm purposes.

      Straw versus hay

      Straw is the material that remains after a seed crop has been harvested. Hay is the finer grass, and normally is harvested as a feed material; for example, lucerne is harvested as hay, where the whole of the plant above ground is used for stock feed. For building, hay bales should be avoided. They are likely to contain more moisture, be composed of relatively soft material and usually will be more expensive.

      Wheat, oats, rye, barley, and rice are some types of straw that may be used, and there are many other plants that can be used. As long as the straw is dry and can be formed into suitable bales, it should be suitable. Rice straw tends to have higher silica content, which might be some advantage, but it also tends to be relatively soft compared with oat straw, for example.

      Of more importance than the type of straw is that it has fairly low moisture content (usually about 12% to 15%), and is baled in fairly uniform and fairly tight bales. If it is not green, appears to be dry, looks to be regular in shape and is well compacted, it is probably suitable.

      Straw bale sizes

      Straw bales come in various sizes and shapes. The bales most used for building are the small bales that are approximately 350 mm × 450 mm × 900 mm. The common ‘square baler’ produces bales that are 14 inches × 18 inches (356 mm × 457 mm) and of variable length, which may be adjusted between about 300 mm and 1100 mm. Some older balers produce bales of 16 inches × 18 inches cross-section, but now these are not very common in Australia, having been superseded by the 14 × 18 inch bales for occupational safety (manual handling) reasons. In the USA there are also 3-tie bales, which are 14, 15 or 16 high by 23 deep by 43 to 47 long.

      The largest dimension tends to vary a fair amount, because that is less easily controlled during the baling process, but the other dimensions are fairly consistent. Most producers now make bales that are much larger, either round bales (various sizes roughly 1 to 2 metres diameter), or large rectangular bales, which normally are either 800 mm × 900 mm or 900 mm × 1200 mm cross section, and of variable length, typically about 2000 mm. The latter have been used for large buildings, such as large winery buildings, but they require a forklift to handle them and, of course, take up a considerably larger area and require much wider footings. Use of these large bales is not considered in this book.

      The standard straw bale

      The small rectangular bales have remained essentially unchanged for over a century. But just because farmers have found that 350 by 450 by 900 mm is a useful size of bale for storage and handling straw and hay, it does not follow necessarily that it is a good, or the best, size and shape for building purposes. But before analysing this issue, let us discuss the

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